Digital portables archaeology

Popular Mechanics - November 1999




Popular Mechanics - July 2001





Popular Mechanics - February 2004

"You'll be able to try out music for a period of time, and then make a purchase choice. If you haven't paid for the music when the clock runs out, the content disappears." - ha-ha-ha. I never bought DRM-protected files. Never bought anything from iTunes. I pride myself for downloading DRM-free MP3 files.

 

I would never pay for mp3 and apple totally suck so I'm in total agreement there buddy

i was given 80tb of mp3 once with a world class gaming pc, i deleted the lot it was just to much

 

Find attached a Hi-MD brochure by Sony.
It seems that (in really low quality) one can fit 45 hours of recording on it.
I just got my first 1GB disc, but I'll stick to the higher quality recordings for now

 

The editor Michael Riggs was spot on!
To add, after the quote of Paul Simon (from "The Boy in the Bubble"): "We'll leave the tv and the radio behind.. Don't you wonder what we'll find?".

 

Showing how quickly things moved on, here are all the MP3 players in the Autumn Winter 2002 Argos Catalogue.

I don't have a scan of the 2001 catalogue, but the 2000 catalogue has none, just ATRAC playing Mini_Disc players.

These players certainly weren't cheap. The same catalogue has a basic portable CD player for £19.99.
Of course, when people like my then boss were saying things like "I pay for my internet so why should I pay for my music",
they could probably show that they were saving money by spending £400 on a 20GByte hard disc based player.

 

Michael Riggs did not anticipate exponential increase in bandwidth and storage capacity. A 128 GB SD card costs $20 and it fits about 180 CDs in full Red Book quality. Online streaming over the wire has been at a steady rate of about 128 Kbit/s since late 1990s, there are ShoutCast stations that broadcast to this day. I downloaded tons of good music with WinAmp + StreamRipper. If only I could find the HDD on which I stored it.

Streaming via wireless phone networks was at its low point at 2005-2015, when rates were as low as 30 Kbit/s, but now you can have 320 Kbit/s and even uncompressed Red Book quality. You can even have HiRes if Red Book is not enough for you. To me, 320 Kbit/s is more than enough for any material, but as streamers compete, they increase the bitrate. As long as there is competition, we should be fine.

So his fears about "blasting compressed audio files over the Internet" were misplaced. He was right though, that to most people low-bitrate MP3 is good enough. No wow, no flutter, no hiss, decent dynamic range, small media, no chewed tape, no misaligned heads, no skipping laser - what is not to like? I prefer 128 Kbit/s MP3 over cassette any day, unless I want to look at rotating hubs and moving needles.



To me, the biggest issue with streaming is that it is piecemeal. The best option to listen to a full album is to find a full CD rip in one big chunk, but even then sometimes it is a bad rip, or made off MP3s, so you can hear pauses between tracks. There have been some effort to ensure gapless playback, but it is still not as good as on traditional media including audio CDs.

When I was shopping for a CD-MP3 player 15 years ago, gapless playback of MP3 files was on the top of my list. Ultimately, I chose a solid state player, as it became evident that CDs are on their way out as a medium for portable players. Sony Discman was the right size. Also, 8cm CDs/DVDs were cute, but it was too late.

 

At first I misread that as my first internet connection after 56KBit/s dial up was 128KBit/s ADSL in about 2001. I just checked and that service wasn't even launched until 2000. So at that speed you could just about download in real time but live streaming would have been marginal.

Live streaming probably had little relevance back then. Downloads from sites like Napster to play on a simple MP3 player were probably far more common.

I agree with your comments about streaming today. Yesterday I found a tape with Roxette "Look Sharp" on it and played it all the way through. I had forgotten about half the songs so wouldn't have sort them out.

 

I have never seen these before with music on them. I have only one of those small CDs (from the 90s), but it's not an audio one. Will share some pictures with it below. Don't remember where I got if from though.
The only other place I have seen this type of CD is being bundeled with various electronic equipment (like OBDII car scanner, clone versions from China) containing drivers.

 

It sure does.

I bought several 8-cm CDs specifically for the purpose of making a video about 8-cm discs and players, but there are very few player models, most of them are ugly and cost arm and leg on ebay.

Seriously, comparing precision and craftsmanship of Mini Disc players with Mini-CD players... No comparison.

I used to stream at work. We had a decent connection, good enough for music. No one tried to stream movies over the Net back then.

 

It didn't take long to find one on eBay, although it is JDM.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224871190495?hash=item345b5e0fdf:g:kK4AAOSwPGtcKaTL
Here is one that isn't
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334357676472?epid=1817654038&hash=item4dd94541b8:g:HzkAAOSw3qZa7bJO
You would have to be a mega fan to spend that though.

I think the Audio disc manufacturers decided it was more economic to stick to the same size for all discs.
Smaller discs also wouldn't work in slot loading players which were common in cars.

The computer ones are much more common. They usually came with cheap soundcards etc where the box was smaller than a standard CD.

 

The F20 above has both built-in memory and a card slot. The F10 had only built-in memory, I believe.

I have an F60, it is not very rugged: thin aluminum that bends and dings, and easy-melting plastic.